Tick tock goes the clock
by GeoRach
Summary: The Doctor, the Ponds and River song on a continuing adventure... why did the TARDIS explode? what will happen on the fields of Trenzalore? And is it really the Doctor's silence which must fall?
1. Chapter 1: Introit

**_Hi all, this is my first story on this site - if anyone is interested in beta-ing I'd love to hear from you, couldn't work out if there's any way to request betas through the site, it's kinda confusing. Meanwhile, got a fair idea where this story is going, got quite a lot more of it already written up just gotta get it in order. Hope you like, hope you review..._  
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**Tick tock, goes the clock**

_**Introit**_

_Tick tock, goes the clock, as the old song says,_

_Tick tock, goes the clock, until the end of days._

**River Song, Archaeologist**

That man.

That beautiful, mad man.

The first time I truly met him, I killed him. I'd been trained to kill him, it was my whole reason for being. It wasn't even something I was conscious of, or planned to do, it just happened. As soon as I got close enough I touched up my lipstick, tried to shoot him, planted a death kiss on his lips, then ran off to see 1939 Berlin as if I had no qualms about what I had done.

Truth to tell, there really were no qualms in my head. I was giddy with the rush of regeneration, and I felt like this huge weight had lifted from my shoulders. My life was just beginning.

Take a child, have her raised by memory-proof aliens, train her in violence, implant post-hypnotic suggestion of how and whom to kill, then lock her into a space-suit and isolate her from everything until she is finally able to break free. That child could turn out either of two ways: a submissive weakling, useless for any purpose but drudgery; or a psychotic rebel, a loose canon who could maim and kill without a thought.

When you think who my mother is, was it any wonder I turned out the dangerous but fun type?

It wasn't long, though, before I realised that man was too incredible to let die. He was willing to give his last breath to save the life of his killer.

He's a catalyst, that man. He makes people want to be so much better than they would have been. And for no-one is that more true than for me.

I didn't love him yet, not then.

But I found myself willing to give up everything to save him.

**The Doctor, traveller**

That woman.

That infuriating woman.

A devil in high heels, with a smile that could melt a glacier.

The first time I met her, I let her die. I was trying to save 4023 souls, including the wonderful Donna. I was willing to sacrifice myself for the greater good. Yet once again I ended up watching someone else make that sacrifice.

I wasn't a willing witness to her death, but with guile, and a pair of handcuffs, she kept me from making that sacrifice. With a whispered name in my ear she had made me realise that I was watching someone I would love, perhaps more than any other, sacrifice herself for me.

She seemed to know all about me, that woman. She spoke of adventures we would have one day, grand events with names straight out of a story book. Then she shut down my quest for foreknowledge with a taunting whisper of "spoilers".

I saved her, gave her a kind of life.

I didn't love her, not then.

But I found myself wondering how I could possibly live up to the memories she had of me.

**River Song, Archaeologist**

He came back to visit me, in the hospital. Although perhaps I should say 'went forward' rather than 'came back'.

He talked to me, told me stories about my parents. Spoke of amazing thigns with the assumption that I would one day see them. It took me a while to notice that he never really asked about me. Even longer for me to realise that he didn't need to ask, because he already know so much more about me than I knew.

One day he came in complaining about the so-called 'narrow-minded food choices' available in the hospital cafeteria, going on to tell me that it was my mother who had first cooked his favourite food: fish fingers and custard.

"Oh, shut up Doctor," I said, my frustration evident.

He looked shocked for a coment, then asked "Is it time then?"

That's when I broke down weeping.

"I killed you," I gasped out between sobs. "Why did you save me? Why bring me here to be fixed when I'm clearly still broken. The Silence took a little girl and turned her into a monster. You should have left me to die."

It wasn't that coherent of course, there were sobs between my words, and eventually hiccoughs as hysteria took hold of me. Looking back, I should be grateful I didn't inherit my parents' colouring, neither of them could cry in public without serious blotching. Suffice to say that by the time that man reached out to me I was a mess.

He took my hands and cradled them in his own.

"Ah, Melody Pond, how could I leave behind the little girl who was stolen from my best friends and used as a weapon against me. I failed you when I couldn't rescue you from the Silence."

"But I'm nothing now," I protested weakly. "I was raised solely to kill you, what do I do now that I've failed?"

"Melody Pond was raised to kill me, "he was so sincere it made my heart ache. "Melody Pond succeeded, then you stepped in and saved me. The Silence had nothing to do with creating the woman who could do that."

"I pondered her words before trying to articulate a new idea. "Melody killed you. I saved you. Melody was what the silence made me into…" my words trailed off, my eyes meeting his hesitantly.

He finished the idea. "River Son is the woman who overcame what was done to Melody to become a remarkable woman."

"River Song, "I tasted the name slowly, feeling it out, trying to decide if I could become that woman. "Do you think I can be her one day?" I asked.

He chuckled, placing my hands back on the covers. "Ah, River Song, all of history will be your playground." He patted my hands paternally, but there was a catch in his voice, a hint of some other feeling.

**The Doctor, traveller**

It was a strange paradox.

I knew she would mature into a remarkable woman. She would be vibrant, clever and disturbingly sexy.

But she would also be incarcerated for the murder of a man, a man she would describe as the best man she ever met. A man the Teselecta said was me.

She knew now that I would know her as River Song. Thanks to my final words as a dying man she knew that I loved River. Words which were intended to eventually help her forgive herself, gave her dangerous foreknowledge of our future interactions.

Ironic really, since the first time I met River she felt compelled to let me know that she knew of me. I still didn't know what it meant, he knowing my true name. That is something a Timelord could normally only tell his wife.

Would River kill me?

Would I marry her?

Foreknowledge could lead to dangerous questions for a time traveller.


	2. Chapter 2: Learning

**_Reposting this 'cos I discovered that all my little story breaks had disappered... didn't matter so much in this chapter, but some of the later ones got confusing!_**

* * *

**_Learning_**

_Tick tock, goes the clock, he cradled and he rocked her,  
Tick tock, goes the clock, 'til River kills the Doctor_

Melody ran, again.

The air was humid, muggy, the thin cotton of her dress sticking to her back and legs.

She couldn't even remember what she was running from, only that if felt like she had run many times before, though she could never remember doing so.

Her feet hurt, angry raw skin in patches where her ill-fitting shoes rubbed. Her chest hurt, burning from her efforts to take in more air, to get far away from the orphanage as fast as possible.

She looked over her shoulder and screamed at the sight behind her… but as soon as she looked forward the memory was gone. All that remained was her sense of panic.

Far ahead she saw the nose of a space shuttle rising against the horizon. Cape Kennedy, she'd heard people call it. America was sending a man to the moon. Melody wasn't exactly sure what America was, but it must be powerful to send a man all the way up into the sky to the moon. Maybe, she thought, just maybe America could help her escape from the spaceman.

Ahead there was a warehouse, standing at an intersection. There, that was the place she would be able to hide. As she ran through the doors and ducked behind a counter she had a brief flash of _dejá vu_. Surely she'd been here before? But of course she hadn't, she'd never escaped the orphanage before… or had she?

There were all sorts of other things she didn't remember properly. The classes they gave her, in which all of the teachers wore eye patches. She didn't quite remember what she learnt in her classes, only that they punished her for failing to learn her lessons well. What were they teaching her? Why weren't there any other children with her in the orphanage?

She looked around the warehouse once again. It looked so familiar. She heard noises come from the door and moved quietly back away from the entry. A space suit walked through the door, visor open to reveal that the helmet was empty. Melody screamed, knowing somehow that although she'd never seen the space suit before it was coming for her. She ran towards the far door, but found it closed and locked. She looked around in a panic, then scrambled up onto the bench, ran along it then jumped up on to the cupboards at the end. Surely up here the spaceman couldn't reach her.

Being unable to reach her didn't stop the spaceman walking slowly towards her, arms reaching out for her. Melody cowered into the corner, then glanced down and stopped in shock. There was a knife at her feet, and words scratched into the wall next to her knee.

"_You've been before Melody. This is where you run every time. If you've run here again make another mark on the wall."_ There were marks next to the writing, dozens of scratches, some of which looked brand new, but others looked much older. Melody looked around the room again. She could see footprints in the dust, footprints the same size as her own. There were other signs too, signs that seemed quite clear. A clear path of debris cleared between the entry and the corner in which Melody was hiding. Scuff marks from large, heavy boots.

Melody looked down at the spaceman walking towards her. Then she looked up at the roof and saw the dark clad, pale faced forms hanging upside down from the ceiling. Suddenly she remembered everything, all the times she'd run here. The fear; carving those words into the wall; writhing away from the mechanical grasp of that empty faced space suit.

She grabbed the knife and made another mark in the wall, then felt that plastic hand grab hold of her ankle and pull. She dropped the knife as she fell, fingers scrambling at the edges of the bench, trying to get enough hold to pull away from her captor.

It was only as she felt the suit closing around her that she realised there had been another way. She'd had the knife, it was no use attacking the spaceman, but she could have turned the knife on herself.

There's always another way out.

* * *

Melody only vaguely recalled her mother trying to shoot her. The panic and confusion in the room would be enough to muddle anyone's memories, and with dozens of the Silence added into the mix it was a miracle that she had any memories of that time in her childhood.

That was the first time she saw her mother. Sometimes she thought she could almost remember something even older: her mother holding her in her arms in a sterile white corridor, whispering that she loved me; then seemingly without a break in time Melody was alone in the cot in a dirty orphanage. The cot she recognised, it was the room she lived in for years, the orphanage from which she would run and run and run as the Silence twisted my mind. The sterile white corridor Melody wouldn't understand for a great many years.

Melody did remember seeing her father, the Doctor and another woman running into the room which had been mine. She didn't recognise her father, she only learnt that it had been him much later in life. She only saw the woman in silhouette, but the sight made her gut clench in anxiety. Of course, Melody attributed that visceral reaction to the Doctor. Even though she didn't know yet who he was she had already been conditioned to hate him.

Shortly after that the orphanage was truly deserted. The caretaker sat in his office, muttering about how the orphanage would close soon, but he forgot about the little girl who had to be taken care of. The Silence were gone, and the space man no longer chased Melody when ventured out.

So she ran, as far and as fast as she could manage on young legs. She made it a long way, but not without a price. Melody died in a back alley in New York on New Years Day. She was reincarnated as a toddler, a very young black girl. The police found her almost immediately, a three year old in vastly oversized clothes, and put her into an orphanage.

Another orphanage, but at least this was just your ordinary, miserable, state run childcare facility. Even without the benefit of special training any child who spent a second childhood in such a place was unlikely to be completely without any kind of psychopathy.

Melody spent 12 years in that place before they took her again. She couldn't remember the lessons, but by the time she broke free again she was an expert marksman, could hit a fly with a knife from 20 metres, and found herself in possession of, but immune to the effects of, both hallucinogenic and poisonous lipstick.

She didn't know what they had done to her. She was so grateful to not remember.

Melody thought she escaped them. For some reason she'd taken her age backwards, and was physically about 8 years old when she found myself in a small village called Leadworth. She found a nice looking lady who had no children, gave her a childish peck on the lips, and convinced her that she had adopted her.

Melody thought she'd escaped on her own until she met Amy Pond and realised that they'd sent her there.


	3. Chapter 3: Parenthood

**_Parenthood_**

_Tick tock goes the clock, the girl was once their daughter_

_Tick tock goes the clock, she ran until they caught her_

"How can she be our daughter?"

Rory was sitting on the warehouse floor, his sword resting across his lap, Amy curled against his side. "I mean, she's older than us. She's a little bit scary… and in jail. And she never got that hair from either of us."

"I don't know," Amy said. "I just don't know." It was all Amy had said since River left with Vastra and Jenny, promising to return as soon as their allies were safely back in their own times.

"So know we're waiting," Rory mused. "What is it the Doctor called you. The girl who waited? And I waited thousands of years for you. Now we're sitting all alone at Demons Run, waiting for our grown up daughter to come back and take us back to Earth, where we'll have to wait again while the Doctor searches the universe for our baby."

There was a sudden flash, then River reappeared before them. Rory jumped up to grab hold of her shoulders, his sword dropping to the floor with a clang.

"Where is she?" he shouted. "Where's Melody? You're her, you must know where she is."

"Rory, what are you doing?" Amy protested.

"It's really not that simple," River said gently. "I don't know everything, and what I do know can't be changed."

"Do we get you back?" Amy asked urgently. "Do we bring Melody up?"

"This isn't the right place for this," River said, looking around at the remnants of the headless monks scattered across the floor. "I'll take you home, then I promise I'll answer any questions I can. Somewhere we can sit down with a cup of tea. God I miss tea, the slop they give me in Stormcage is more like fermented waste water."

Amy stood up wearily. "How do we get home? The Doctor left with the TARDIS."

River held her wrist out, showing a delicate instrument strapped to her wrist. "Vortex manipulator."

"Vortex what?"

"You remember," Rory said. "She lent it to the Doctor when the Pandorica opened."

"Spoilers," River interjected. "You mean there really is a Pandorica? I always thought that was a fairytale. Wait, don't answer that."

"What about that?" Amy pointed over to the wooden cradle sitting in the middle of the floor, a mute reminder of the theft of Melody. "Do we just leave that here?"

"Oh," River looked at the cradle with a wistful smile. "I'll take that back to the TARDIS, but we have to leave the mobile."

"Leave it?" Amy looked incredulous. "Why would we leave the mobile? They were the Doctors first stars."

"Mine too," River spoke softly. "Kovarian gets her hands on it somehow, but not on the cot."

"I remember," Amy said wondrously. "At the orphanage, in the little girl's room, there was the mobile, and a photo of me with Melody. River, that was her wasn't it? I mean, it was you."

"We're not having this conversation here," River said firmly. "Give me your hands and I'll get you home first."

Amy reached out her hand without hesitation to River. Rory stared at her speculatively for several second before reluctantly extending his hand. River placed their hands on her forearm, touched the vortex manipulator and there was a flash of light. The warehouse vanished and the three were standing in the kitchen of Amy's house.

"Tea?" River asked, walking over to the sink, filling the kettle and putting it on the stove. "If ever there was a conversation we all needed to be sitting down for this is it."

Amy sat at the kitchen table and watched in confusion as River bustled around the kitchen, gathering mugs from the cupboard, tea from the tin and making three mugs of tea.

"How did you do that?" Rory asked, sitting down abruptly.

"I told you, vortex manipulator," River said, sitting down and sliding the mugs of tea in front of Amy and Rory.

"Not that," Rory looked down at the mugs. "How do you know your way around the kitchen? And how did you know how we take our tea?"

"Oops," River looked down at the mugs then smiled at them sheepishly. "Here I am being ever so careful what I say, and it's simple things like cups of tea that'll give me away. Suffice to say that this isn't the first time I've sat in this kitchen, but that really is all I can say."

"Really?" Amy said. "Exactly how much are you going to be able to tell us in this conversation anyway?"

River sighed. "Not as much as I'd like to. But I can't risk the universe just to tell you everything you have a right to know. And it's not just me, I know that the first time you meet your daughter again you'll know things about me that you can't tell me.

"So what can you tell us?" Amy asked angrily. "Will we ever get Melody back? Or will we meet you as a grown woman? Do Rory and I get to have any part in bringing up our daughter?"

"God, whatever I say is going to sound like some cryptic prophecy. You get to see Melody when she's a young girl. You play a part in Melody's upbringing, you'll teach her more than you know, but not in the normal way. Could it ever be the normal way with us?"

"What about now, with you? How can we be your parents when you have to be older than we are? You are older, aren't you?"

"Are you asking how old I am?" River asked with a smile.

"Kind of," Amy admitted.

"Surely you know better than to ask a lady her age?" River said archly. "But yes, Amy, I am older than either of you at the moment."

"God," Rory sounded sad. "Parents aren't meant to be older than their child. You were a baby, then they stole you, and not half an hour later you're… you're you."

"I know," River said. "It's not fair, and nothing anyone can do now is going to make it fair."

"You could though," Amy clutched her mug in both hands. "All you have to do is tell us where they're keeping her, or tell the Doctor, then you could be rescued."

"But then I wouldn't be me," River said simply. "They try to make me into what they want, but they don't succeed. If I hadn't been through what I went through, lived through those experiences, I wouldn't be who I am today. That's even aside from the danger that anyone who took me away from the Silence would be in, they wouldn't have let me go easily. Also there are a couple of fixed points in time that can't be altered… it's complicated, and it can't be changed."

There was silence in the kitchen for a while as Rory and Amy thought about this, then both spoke. "What about…", "So that was your…" They looked at each other, then Amy continued, "That was your room, wasn't it? At the orphanage?"

"Yes," River said softly. "My memories of that time are pretty vague, there were so many of the Silence around. I remember that day when you came there, I was pretty scared. You were in my room, I came in and you were scared, then you apologised…"

"For shooting you," Amy said softly. "I never meant to hurt you, but I thought… wait, when are you up to? Did you go to Utah with us, back to 1969?"

"See what I mean about spoilers?" River smiled. "It's so hard to keep track sometimes. Yes, I was with you in Utah, I know why you wanted to hurt the spaceman, and that you didn't know it was me in the suit back in '69."

"Was it you at the lake?" Amy said suddenly. "The Doctor told me you were in jail for killing a man? Was it you in the suit at Lake Silencio?"

"Amy!" Rory objected. "Why would River kill the Doctor? She wouldn't…" his voice trailed off as he turned to face his fully grown daughter.

"Oh Rory," River sighed. "Why would I want to kill the Doctor? Well, actually I can think of a few reasons… like that insufferable smugness on his face when he's the only one who knows what's going on. But no, I don't want to kill him."

"And was I right," Amy asked. "On the Byzantium, when I said you were his wife?"

"The Byzantium? That sounds intriguing, but I haven't gone there yet. So you haven't asked me yet."

"Oh, maybe I need to start keeping a diary… or some kind of flow chart."

"Anyway, we're asking now," Rory said. "Are you the Doctor's wife?"

"It takes two people for a marriage," River said sadly. "The Doctor doesn't have a wife."

"Yet," Amy said. "That's what you mean, isn't it, the Doctor hasn't got a wife yet?"

"Spoilers," River's voice sounded just as taunting as it always did with that word, but there was a glimmering tear in the corner of her eye.

"So what now?" Rory asked. "Do we just sit, and wait for the Doctor?"

"Oh, Rory, when have you ever known Amy to just sit and wait?" River chuckled. "But for now, I go back to Stormcage. I know some of what happens next for you two, so of course I can't tell you. But you will see Melody again. Soon, but not soon enough."

"And you'll just sit in your cell waiting for…" Amy was confused. "Why are you waiting there? I don't mean what are you in jail for, I know you can't answer that. But why are you even there? You can escape any time you want to, why would you stay?"

"Oh Amy, that's probably the most complicated question of all," River had a faraway look on her face. "I'm not in jail as much as the authorities would like to think I am, but I'm there because of a promise."

"A promise to who?" Rory asked.

River grinned, then met Amy's eye. "Spoilers!" the two women chanted in unison.

"It's time for me to leave," River said looking at her chronometer. "You'll see me again… I already know that."

"Okay," Amy and Rory stood up, watching as River rose to her feet, straightened her clothing then began adjusting the vortex manipulator strapped to her wrist.

"River," Amy moved around the table to stand before the older woman. "Even though you're probably way past needing your parents… that's still what we are. If you ever need us, or if any of the times you escape Stormcage you want to come see us… well, you know where we are, and… well, you're always welcome."

River stepped forward and impulsively hugged Amy. "Mother, thank you. That means a lot. I can't visit you, not yet, not here… but when I can, if you still want me to, I will."

Amy had tears in her eyes as she held her grown daughter in her arms. "I wish you didn't have to leave."

"Yeah, me too," Rory said awkwardly from where he stood watching. "I mean, I wish you didn't have to go too."

"So do I," River checked her watch again, "But I really have to leave now. I'll see you again." She touched the vortex manipulator and was gone in a flash.

Amy and Rory looked at each other in confusion at River's abrupt departure, then were interrupted by the front door slamming.

"Hey guys," they heard Mels yelling from the hallway. "You wouldn't believe what just happened. It was only the damn cops trying to blame me for pinching such rich gits car. Like they could pin something like that on me." She stepped into the kitchen, then paused to stare at her two friends. "What happened? Have you been off having more adventures with your Doctor friend?"


	4. Chapter 4: Tribulations

**Tribulations**

_**Tick tock, goes the clock, he gave all he could give her,**_

_**Tick tock, goes the clock, now prison waits for River.**_

River looked up from her pacing as the door to the waiting room opened.

"Amy?" she said in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"Five minutes," said the slightly overweight security guard who had accompanied Amy into the room.

"Well shut the door then," Amy told the guard firmly, ignoring River for the moment. "I was promised a private visit, so out with you."

The two women waited for the door to shut before turning to each other. Amy stepped forward and flung her arms around River's neck. "God, I've been worried sick. It's been months. Are you alright?"

River returned the embrace gladly, revelling in the comfort of being held. "It's been longer than that for me. I tried to disappear after what happened. After Lake Silecnio Madame Kovarian dumped me back in my office on the same day she took me. My graduation night, I'll have to send you photos of the ceremony. Anyway, my supervisor invited me for drinks at the staff club. I went to the rest room, then I heard the Time Agents come in looking for me, so I ran."

Amy pulled River down on a chair, sitting next to her and taking her hand. "How long did you run? How did they catch you?"

"I ran for months," River sighed. "Alright, years. Does it matter? I needed to get away. Wait, where are you? When are you from, and what are you doing here?"

"It's okay. I'm from late 2011, so we've done Area 52, and Hitler. I know who you are, and I know what the Silence made you do." Amy rubbed the back of River's hand. "I know the Doctor forgave you completely for what you had to do."

River looked deeply into her mother's eyes. "Do you hate me for killing him?"

Amy looked around the room cautiously before asking "Is it really private in here?"

"Mostly," River hesitated. "But I wouldn't trust them completely. Some things are too important to risk."

"Yes," Amy said thoughtfully. "There are definitely things that are too important, things that have to be remembered. But if you'll look into my eye," she paused significantly, "then you'll know I could never hate my daughter."

River slumped, the desperate tension that had held her upright releasing suddenly. "I stopped running, you know. Because as long as I'm running I can't be found by anyone, and that was more unbearable than this. So now I assume they've brought you here to testify at my murder trial."

"That's right, which menas we need to talk," Amy said urgently. "It's all up to you now river, what are you going to do."

"Oh Amy, what can I do? I won't plead guilty to murder, but I really can't offer nay defense either."

"They'll send you to jail," Amy protested.

"At least then you'll know where to find me."

Amy looked steadily at her daughter. "It could be years you know," she said warningly. "Are you sure about this? I don't know the law here, but surely kidnapping, brainwashing, and trapping you in a robotic suit are mitigating circumstances. A reduced sentence or something? Don't throw your life away, be sensible."

"Sensible?" River chuckled. "I tried that once, didn't work out so well."

"Okay," Amy sat back in her seat. "If you're sure then. Rory's in a meeting with the prosecutor now. I refused to talk to them until I'd seen you. I'll tell Rory we have to go along with this, and only tell as much of the truth as is safe. Just remember that we both love you, and we'll do anything we can."

"Oh, Amy," this time it was River who initiated the hug. "Mother. What did I do to deserve you and Rory?"

Amy looked at her daughter, and wondered what she could say to explain her love. She thought of the time's future-River would save her life. If she said "you saved my life the first time we met, and we've saved the universe 2 or 3 times since then" it would offer River far too much foreknowledge. Then Amy realised there was only one possible explanation.

"Spoilers!"

"Amelia Pond, what is your relationship to the defendant?"

"River is my daughter, and my friend." Amy stood tall in the witness box looking down upon her bewigged questioner.

"And your relationship to the deceased?"

"I'm the Doctor's friend. His best friend."

"And when was the last time you saw the Doctor?"

"Erm, do you mean relatively, like that I saw him 7,000 years from now? Or the most recent time I saw him, and in a personal linear sense?"

This appeared to stump the prosecutor briefly, before he receovered with "How about you tell me about each of those answers?"

"Okay," Amy paused to get her thoughts in order. "It is kind of confusing though. The latest I ever saw him was in the 110th century when we went there to take River to the hospital, the Sisters of some kind of Schism."

"Why did you take the defendant to this hospital?"

Amy rolled her eyes. "She was sick, obviously."

"Isn't it true, Miss Pond, that she was injured as a result of trying to murder the Doctor?"

"Well, yes, kind of..."

The prosecutor cut her off. "Just answer the question."

Amy looked over at River her shook her head slightly. All through the trial River had maintained a facade of sullen remorse, but the occasional flash in her eyes made Amy think it was just an act.

"Fine," Amy said sullenly. "Yes, she tried to kill him. Her injuries were a consequence of that act."

"And when was your most recent encounter with the Doctor?"

"I'm not entirely sure," Amy hesitated. "I think it was on the starship UK, when Liz 10 was queen. But I'm not sure exactly what year that was.

"What did you do on that occasion?"

"Well, I'm not sure it's exactly an encounter, it was our first trip together in the TARDIS, we saved a star whale from imprisonment and torture..." Amy's voice drifted as she recalled the adventure, and River looked up, intent on this first hand description of an event she'd only read about. "I was still in my nightie," Amy reminisced, "But we still managed to save the starship and the star whale."

"And from your perspective?" the prosecutor asked. "When was the last time you saw the Doctor?"

"Ah, that's confusing," Amy testified, "Because it was only a few months ago that we saw him. He gave us a house and told us we'd be safer without him, then he left."

"And that's the last time you saw hi? You're sure of that?"

"Well, yes, and no," Amy struggled to keep her tone level despite her anger and frustration at the questions; no, anger at the whole situation. "I'm a time traveller, remember? Linear for me doesn't mean linear for him, and then there was Area 52, but that wasn't really real..." River stared at Amy, shaking her head sharply, and Amy stopped talking.

"Let's stick to what's real shall we Miss Pond," the prosecutor suggested. "Tell me, were you present at Lake Silencio, Utah, Earth, on April 22nd in the year 2011?"

"Yes."

"Who else was present?"

"Rory, me, the Doctor and River Song. We had a picnic."

"And did you witness the defendant, Melody Pond aka River Song, shoot the Doctor several times, wait for him to enter a regenerative state, then shoot him once more to ensure his life was terminated?"

"No."

The prosecutor stopped in shock. "No, Miss Pond?"

"That's correct," Amy said firmly.

"Did you not witness the death of the Doctor?"

"I did."

"So you saw the defendant shoot the Doctor," he stated.

"No, I did not."

"May I remind you, Miss Pond, that you are under oath. If you continue to perjure yourself wou will be questioned under truth serum and punished for your perjury."

"Objection!" River stood quickly. "The prosecutor is threatening Amy, but has offered no proof of perjury. He hasn't even asked her what she actually saw."

"Agreed," the chief judge said. "Although you have not appropriately phrased the objection. I would like to repeat my advice that you accept legal counsel Dr Song. Representing yourself is unwise."

"Yes," River drawled. "It is unwise, isn't it." She sat back down and smiled at her mother.

"Miss Pond," the prosecutor rephrased his question. "Could you please tell us what you witnessed at Lake Silencio?"

Amy took in a deep breath before she began. "I was having a picnic with... wiat, I can't answer that question."

"You must answer the question, you are under oath Miss Pond."

"No, I can't answer in front of River," Amy explained. "It's confusing, the timeline, but see the picnic at Lake Silencio hasn't happened for her yet, so I can't tell her what happens."

River sighed, then rose to her feet. "May I explain?" she asked the judge, who nodded. "It's okay Amy, time quirks aren't exactly unheard of, the doctor doesn't have a monopoly on time travel you know. I've agreed to a temporal lock on these proceedings, which means that once the trial is over any testimony about events in my future will be put under a memory lock after the hearing. I won't remember what's been said until after that event has happened. It really is okay."

"Okay," Amy still looked uncertain, but River smiled to let her know she should continue. "We were having a picnic, Rory, River, the Doctor and me, when we heard a ute pull up at the top of the hill. A man got out of the ute, he later introduced himself as Canton Everett Delaware the third. The doctor waved to him, the River said something, and we all looked down at the lake. There was a figure in a space suit walking out of the water."

"What happened next?"

"The Doctor told us we had to stay back, and that under no circumstances were we to interfere, then he walked down to the lakes edge. The spaceman lifted his visor, and appeared to be talking to the Doctor. Then he slowly lifted his hand and blasted the Doctor with some kind of energy weapon." Amy's voiced broke as the remembered the scene. The Doctor, her raggedy Doctor, dying. "I tried to run down to help, but River held me back, saying I mustn't. He started to glow, to regenerate, then the space man blasted him again and he was dead."

"You maintain that River Song was beside you on the beach preventing you form running down to assist your friend?"

"That's correct."

"Is it possible that River Song was on that beach twice?"

"Actually," Amy smiled fondly, "She was there twice."

"Ah," the prosecutor smiled. "Then you admit that River Song was in the space suit."

"Not the spacesuit," Amy looked over at River. "She was there with me. I was pregnant, a couple of months along, so while River was holding me back on that beach she was also present as a foetus. My baby."

River smiled at the doting expression on her mother's face. It was the first time she'd heard Amy speak about her pregnancy, but she looked happy.

"So, you maintain that the defendant was on the beach three times that day," the prosecutor sounded slightly desperate now."

"Stop putting words in my mouth, "Amy said defiantly. "I saw a figure in a space suit shoot the Doctor. I never saw the figures face, or hair, or any other distinguishing feature. I never saw River in such a suit. I have no certain knowledge about who shot the Doctor."

The questioning continued, and then Rory was called to the stand. Neither of River's parents would say that they had seen her in the spacesuit. Somehow, while telling the absolute truth, they amanged to make the prosecutors case sound like it was based on hearsay and rumours.

For a while River almost let herself believe that it would be okay, that she wouldn't go to jail for a murder that hadn't been committed. It was possible she could return to her life at the university while still protecting the man she loved.

Until a video clip was sent to the prosecutor by a representative of the order of the Headless Monks, showing her face in the spacesuit, showing clearly that it was River Song who shot the Doctor. The Silence had never taken the chance that River might escape justice. River Song being incarcerated in Stormcage Containment Facility was all a part of their plan.

Amy and Rory wept when they saw her after sentencing, but River smiled.

"At least now he'll always know where he can find me," River said with a smile. "Maybe, now that I'm in prison, my life can finally begin."

As the guards clapped River in handcuffs and led her away she looked back over her shoulder. "Until next time..."

"It's not right," the young Time Agent argued, idly running his finger over the muscular shoulder.

"What's not right?" his supervisor queried, lying back and enjoy the caress.

"Pond, or Song, or whoever she really is," the Agent explained. Look, I've spent the last year tracking that woman down. All of space and time to hide in, and I find her on an archaeology dig on Raxocoricofallopotorious. Far as I can tell the only thing she did wrong while on the run was to use some kind of hallucinogen on the dig leader to insinuate herself into the team. That hardly sounds like the actions of a psychopathic killer. And when I cornered her she came along peacefully enough." Suddenly the agent blushed, and bloom of colour on his cheeks which didn't go unnoticed by his supervisor.

"Jack, what's up? Did she try to use her feminine wiles on you?"

"No," the Agent assured his bedmate. "Although if she had I suspect I'd have had to give in gracefully. That woman has significant wiles."

"So why the blush then?"

"Oh, I was just remembering a little suggestion she made about handcuffs," the agent said slyly, "and admiring these very substantial bed posts."

"Yes, well it's a shame we don't have any handcuffs here."

"Actually," Jack reached for his jacket, "I just happen to have a pair handy. Do you trust me?"

"It's you who should be worried about trust," the older man said as Jacks eyes began to blur. "One year memory wipe, it was in your drink."

"Why?" Jack slurred the question as his eyes closed.

The older man gathered his clothing and walked away from the bed, then paused and looked back at his young ocmpanion. "You don't even know what you did boy. Why we had to take your memories. Now you'll have no memory of River Song, or the Doctor, or me."

He left the room without another backward glance, leaving the memory wiped young Time Agent to his sleep.


	5. Chapter 5: Repercussions part I

**Super excited 'cos I got revies and they were nice... which inspired me to post this chapter in two parts ('cos the second part might not get finished until after the weekend.**

* * *

**Repercussions**

_**Tick tock goes the clock, she's killed him now for sure  
Tick tock goes the clock, until it ticks no more.**_

Dr River Song ran. She'd been running for over a year, ever since she'd been deposited by Madame Kovarian back into her office, wearing her academic regalia. She ran harder and faster than she'd ever run in her life. And she'd spent most of her life running.

She knew who was chasing her this time, which was a first. Not the nameless ephemeral fear which she'd fled through much of her childhood, but a tangible pursuit from law enforcement, the Time Agency who had somehow perceived that River Song, in this time, was the now the person who had killed the Doctor.

She remembered that she had killed him. The Doctor, her saviour, was dead.

Maybe she would meet him again… in fact she must meet him again, or he would never have known who she was.

But right here, right now, he was dead, and River Song had killed him.

He had given her back her life. Given her an identity other than made-to-measure psychopath. Pointed her to a direction in her life, had indirectly led to her discovery of archaeology, a field she found endlessly fascinating. He was her parent's great friend. He'd been the first man to propose marriage to her, even if it had been done to give her a reason to stay alive.

And now she'd killed him.

River Song ran.

River Song was pursued.

But it wasn't the Time Agency she ran from.

* * *

"Well now," River exhaled, "Who on earth are you?"

River Song knew the answer before she asked. It was one of her personal rules: in a critical situation never ask a question you don't already know the answer to. Unless you desperately need the information; or a distraction. In this case, although she already knew the answer, she was playing for time, just a few seconds to implement her plan. So she asked the question.

She watched in the mirror as the man squared his shoulders and straightened his back. "Time Agent Harkness, I'm here to arrest you for…"

"Really?" River drawled. She touched up her lipstick, then turned to face him, leaning back against the counter. "Do you often come into the ladies rest room to accost dangerous fugitives?"

"It's my duty…" Agent Harkness began.

"Now, other forms of accosting in rest rooms, those I can easily imagine," River smiled, winked, and carefully moved her leg so that just a hint of her garter was showing through her split skirt. "Tell me, does the time Agency only employ incredibly handsome, virile young agents?"

"Well," the young Agent blushed slightly, his eyes fixed on River's thigh. "There are certain standards for admission..."

"I'm sure there are," River sauntered forward, speaking in a husky voice and keeping her eyes firmly locked on the time agents lips. "And I'm sure you exceed every single one of them."

"Actually," the Agent tried to look modest, but was clearly more than interested in the gorgeous woman who was making a pass at him. "I was top in all my classes."

"Hmm," River stepped in close, invading her personal space. "I bet you just love being on top."

"I'm pretty flexible about that," was all Agent Harkness managed to say before River closed in, pressing her lips to his. For a moment he kissed her back fervently, then suddenly stopped and looked around in confusion. "How did I get here? It's so beautiful."

River smiled, then whispered into the bemused Agent's ear "There's a fabulous spa just over there, maybe you should take of your clothes and hop in with me."

"I like the way you're thinking," the Agent said, carefully stripping naked then reaching out for River's hand. "Let's go."

"You jump in while I slip out of this dress," River whispered. Then she watched the Agent walk over to the plush couch, and carefully climb on top.

"This is heaven," he sighed. "All that's missing is you."

"Here I come," River bent over and picked up the Time Agent's vortex manipulator. Time Agent Jack Harkness was left enjoying his hallucinatory hot tub alone while River Song strapped the manipulator to her wrist, entered new coordinators and activated it.

* * *

River Song looked around the dimly lit bar, trying to fit each patrons face ot the description she had been given: humanoid, obese, male, bald, sad, wearing rich robes. Nothing, no-one fit the description at all. That was the trouble with the black-market information trade, there were no guarantees that the information was correct. She decided to walk around the bar once. Maybe her contact was hidden in a dimly lit nook or corner. But no, despite finding a felinoid and a Silurian in a highly compromising position, witnessing two drug transactions and what appeared to be an illegal weapons buy, there was still no sign of the man.

River sighed in resignation, then reluctantly approached the bar, sliding onto a vacant stool. When the bar tended came over she ordered a single-malt Terran scotch whiskey, then laid a hundred credit note on the bar, but kept her finger-tips on the currency. The barman looked at the note greedily, then smiled at River questioningly.

"I'm looking for a man called Doriam," River said quietly. "Is he here?"

The bartender smiled. "Of course he's here, he's always here." He pointed to a man sitting by himself at a corner table. "I don't know why he doesn't just buy this place, he does all his business here."

River lifted her fingers from the credit note and smiled. "Bring over a glass of whatever he's drinking, and keep the change." She picked up her drink and walked over to meet her contact.

"Miss Song," the fat blue man rose to his feet and welcomed her to his table. "Am I really so hard to find? Even in a place like this I normally stand out from the crowd."

River grimaced wryly as she sat down. "You certainly are unique Mr Maldovar, but much harder to recognise when the translation software substitutes the word 'sad' in place of 'blue'."

Doriam laughed, a hearty chuckle that rose up from his substantial belly. "Sad? Me? No wonder you looked lost Miss Song."

"It's Dr Song actually, River corrected. "Doctor is a wonderful title, once people hear it no-one ever asks if you're married. Makes it perfect for a woman making her own way in the world."

"It also gives one a certain status I expect," Doriam observed. "So, Dr Song, what is a woman like you doing in a disreputable establishment like this, talking to a man like me?"

"Really, Mr Maldovar, I'm sure you checked me out as carefully as I did you, so you already know that I'm on the run from the law, accused of murder, and that I've come here to trade for your assistance."

"Very business-like, Dr Song. But why do you need my help, and what can you have to offer me?" the blue man linked his fingers patiently. He loved making deals.

River pulled a slender chain from around her neck and removed a delicate gem encrusted ring. She glanced at it fondly before offering it to Doriam.

"Very pretty, Dr Song," Doriam took the ring, looked at it critically, then placed it in the centre of the table. "I suspect, however, that whatever you want is going to cost a lot more than just a pretty ring."

"Naturally," River said amiably. "But that isn't just a pretty ring. It's part of a sympathetically linked set which includes a necklace, bracelet, earring and coronet. A person with psychic ability can hold any one piece and know the location of the rest of the treasure."

"And you have the whole set?" Doriam asked greedily.

"No," River corrected primly. "It's even better than that. This ring came from the treasure vault of the Tsars of New Russia. The treasures were hidden during the Feold revolution. They've been lost ever since. The rest of the set is still there, with this ring you'd hold the location to the entire treasure."

Doriam swallowed nervously. "This is a handsome reward Dr Song, what will it cost me?"

"Information Mr Maldovar," River smiled enigmatically. "I need you to hace the archives of the Headless Monks and the Order of the Silence. This piece of paper," she slid it across the table, "Has a list of all the things I need to know."

Doriam read the list, then looked at River curiously. "Archaic spacesuit schematics, time-space coordinates, bsae locations. What are you up to Dr Song?"

"Who, me?" River tried to look innocent, tucking her wayward hair behind her ears. "Nothing much, I'm just going to change the history of the universe."


	6. Chapter 5: Repercussions part II

**Second half of this chapter, have to admit I'm struggling a little with the next one so be patient. **

**On the good news side of things, the wonderful JaneScarlett has agreed to Beta this for me, and it's already better thanks to her contribution. Any mistakes left are all mine.**

**Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

"How hard can this be?" River asked herself, looking at the tool kit laid out on the table before her. She picked up a laser key and loosened the screws on the side of the access panel, disregarding the small seal which stated that 'all warranties void if seal is broken.' She confidently disconnected each item of internal wiring until the workings of the sonic probe were laid out on the tray, then began reconnecting the components in a slightly different order.

She was perched on a stool in a basement workroom, weak sunlight spilling through the high windows to illuminate the bench at which she was working. None of the lights were on as River was not entirely authorised to be there. She hadn't even needed to resort to hallucinogens to talk her way into the building, just pretended to be visiting the university engineering department while on sabbatical from a teaching post. Judicious flirting had distracted the security guard from asking for ID, the robust young woman had seemed more concerned with getting River's phone number than whether she was authorised to be there.

That had been three equipment thefts and six hours ago, and River had been far less frustrated at that time. Since then she had stripped down and rebuilt this probe four times. The psychic interface had been achieved with the implementation of a single microchip. Boosting capacity had involved creating a feedback loop in the power limiting capacitors. The grip was more stylish and fitted comfortably in her hand, and there was a micro-grapple which would prevent the probe from being dropped or lost. She'd linked the probe to her handheld computer using both cables and IR links, and updated the custom programming she'd created based on the suit schematics Doriam had provided.

River pointed the probe at the test-suit, changed the settings, and pressed the button. The probe flashed a single green light to indicate the program was working, and River smiled. Finally she'd succeeded!

She stood, picked up the handheld computer which was linked by a cable to the suit, started the suit-control program, and hit the key to start the suit walking, then picked up the probe again and activated the over-ride. The space-suit continued to respond to the computer instead of the probe, and River began swearing profusely.

"Why won't you work," she looked at the probe. "That program's supposed to over-ride the original controls on the suit. I need to be able to control the suit remotely."

The words echoed oddly in the empty workroom, and River shivered slightly before sitting back at the bench and deconstructing the probe again.

"Come on, the program works," she laid the pieces out in a careful order, the precision of her movements suggesting a calmness which was contradicted by her tone. "For heaven's sake, he managed to get this kind of functionality into a cane, and a screwdriver. How hard can it be to reprogram a probe?"

She worked through the entire process again, re-ordering components, moving the wiring, attempting to remove and replace different features. Again and again she started over, referring back to the textbooks and schematics which she'd stolen from the library. She attempted to re-write the over-ride program. Every time she tested it from the handheld computer it worked perfectly. The probe, however, continued to fail.

She linked her computer to the university servers, and looked for any other applications that could be added to a sonic probe. Each one that she tried worked perfectly: everything except for the one program she needed, her over-ride program.

A couple of hours later River's hair was hanging limply around her face, her cargo-pants smudged where she had repeatedly wiped the sweat from her hands each time they became clammy. She pointed the probe at the suit once more, then swore when the suit continued responding to the handheld computer. If she could have given up she would have, but giving up would mena that she really had killed the best man she'd ever met. She'd gotten so sick of the repeated testing process that she'd programmed the suit to continuously walk backwards and forward, an empty mylar suit pacing the room exactly as if it were as frustrated as she was, walking to and fro in an empty basement, while River fought desperately to override the commands.

She searched once more for any probe applications which might help her, anything similar enough to her requirements to assist her in controlling the suit. It was hard to believe the types of programs people had written, she found one which made the probe act as a torch, another which tested for ticklish zones on most humanoids, even one which would allow the probe to function as a screwdriver. River couldn't help but be surprised that anyone other than the Doctor would think of using a sonic probe to fasten screws. She even checked out the name of the person who'd written the application, just in case it was him, but she didn't really believe he'd ever have picked "ginjaninja" as a screen name.

It was a moment of whimsy that led River to upload the screwdriver application. She remembered Amelia as a young woman talking about the her imaginary friend and his whirring sonic screwdriver. It still seemed like a ridiculous tool, but it reminded her of the Doctor, and her mother. Like a memento of her innocence, of the days when she still had some say in what she did. The blessed time between when she overcame her training and chose to save the Doctor, and when Madame Kovarian ripped all control over her actions away from her.

River never actually considered that the probe would work when she hit the button, so her head whipped around in shock when the suit stopped mid-step. She hit the button again and the suit resumed its pacing. One more press on the button and the suit was frozen. Now came the tricky part, and River focussed intently on the psychic interface, trying to tell the probe exactly what she needed. The suit raised one arm, palm outstretched, and released the energy from the weapons in a diffuse cloud which had no effect on anything in the area.

Why had she ever thought a sonic probe would do the job? But if this worked there was no way she would ever admit to the Doctor that she'd saved his life with a sonic screwdriver.

* * *

River shivered as she waited in the depths of a cloudy lake. The scuba gear enabled her to breathe comfortably, but the wetsuit was insufficient against the wintry chill that lingered in the water. It was so cold, but this was her only chance. She had to wait.

She'd arrived early enough that she could be hidden in those depths before her younger, self was teleported into the water. River waited, watching as a space-suit enclosed figure appeared and drifted unconscious in the water. She looked oddly peaceful, floating amongst the fishes, until the suit jerked and her younger self woke up, eyes wide and terrified. River could remember the panic, the claustrophobic feeling of being trapped in the suit, depending on it to breathe under that water, dreading what was to come.

River shivered as she looked at her chronometer, her mind awash with conflicting emotions. It was cold, she was reliving a dreadful memory, and she was terrified of what was to come: but there was also hope. This had to work, it was her only chance to save the Doctor and thwart the Silence.

The suit drifted down to the bottom of the lake, feet settling into the deep sediment, and took its first step up towards the lake's edge. River swam slowly in the suits wake, keeping as close as she could without being seen. . She didn't remember seeing a figure in scuba gear in the lake, and therefore she mustn't be seen. It was a fixed point in time, she must try to change as little as possible, just that one little detail of the Doctor's death.

River lost sight of the helmet as the suit broke the lake's surface. She drifted as close to the edge as she could without being seen, keeping the suited figure between herself and the group picnicking on the beach. The timing would have been difficult if she hadn't known exactly when this was going to happen. She kept a careful eye on the time, and at exactly 5:02:53 pm the Doctor was scheduled to die, and as the chronometer clicked over to 5:02:00pm she remembered the words they'd spoken replaying them in her mind.

"It's ok, I know it's you," he'd said, and River remembered lifting the visor, looking into his eyes as he spoke. "Well then, here we are at last."

"I can't stop it," she'd felt like crying. "The suit's in control."

"You're not supposed to, this has to happen."

"Run!" she'd begged him.

"I did run, running brought me here," he'd explained, and her heart had been breaking as she pled with him.

"I tried to fight it, but I can't, it's too strong."

"I know, it's okay, this is where I die. This is a fixed point, this must happen, this always happens..."

River forced herself to stay focussed on the time, ignoring the little voice in her mind which was echoing the words she'd spoken, "Please my love, please just run."

She hit the button on the sonic screwdriver, freezing the suit in position.

"Time can be re-written," she begged him.

"Don't you dare. Goodbye River."

She remembered that he'd closed his eyes in anticipation of the shots that would kill him. Instead she hit the next control on the sonic and heard the weapons blasts. And now, she could feel her consciousness reaching out to the suited figure on the beach, as if that figure were part of her again. River knew that her physical self was hidden in the shallows of Lake Silencio, but somehow she was also on the beach looking into her Doctor's eyes.

"Hello sweetie," she said to the shocked Doctor.

"What have you done?"

"Well," she said smugly, "I think I just drained my weapons systems."

"But this is fixed," he sounded almost offended. "This is a fixed point in time!"

"Fixed points can be re-written."

"No they can't, of course they can't, who told you that..."

The light grew stronger, blinding River, and suddenly she found herself back in the lake in a scuba suit, trying to work out what had happened. She sank, slowly, as she tried to work out how her consciousness could have flowed between different temporal versions of herself, and why that flow had suddenly stopped. Then her feet hit the bottom of the lake and she realised that something was incredibly wrong, because she couldn't feel it anymore. She'd always been able to feel the earth spinning under her feet, sense the passage of time. Now she felt nothing. She looked at her wrist, and saw that the chronometer was frozen with the numbers just turning to 5:02:53 pm, confirming what she already knew.

Something was wrong with time.


	7. Chapter 6: Interlude part I

**Isn't it funny how some bits are really hard to write, and others just pour onto the page like they'd already been written somewhere and you're just channelling the words. Well I wish the bits would come in order, some of the later chapters were so easy, but this one is taking quite a bit of work. Right now I'm trying to work out exactly what game River would have played with Cleopatra to get the pyramids... and how the gun fits into that game. Any thoughts?**

**Rach  
**

* * *

**Interlude**

_**Tick tock, goes the clock, the truth you hear is lying,**_

_**Tick tock, went the clock, now time is slowly dying**_

When River emerged from the lake she was shocked to realise that she was no longer cold. She wasn't warm either, wasn't any temperature. Something was wrong with time, and it was affecting the whole world. There was no sensation of temperature, no breeze, an eerie stillness in the air.

River looked at her wrist, at the vortex manipulator she'd been hoping to use to leave this time and place, and was unsurprised to see that the display was dead.

"Of course not," she muttered. "If I can't feel time, if the vortex no longer reaches here, how could a vortex manipulator work?"

A Native American man stood watching River, seemingly unsurprised by her emerging from the lake in scuba gear or by her talking to herself. He was dressed in crudely stitched animal hides, his face was painted, and he carried a wooden fishing pole. In one hand he held several large fish. There were earphones in his ear, and an iPod strapped to his arm. A blaster was holstered at his waist and he leant against a motorcycle. It was like an undergraduate history quiz – what is wrong with this image? And there were so many things wrong, items that didn't exist yet on earth carried by a man wearing clothes that hadn't been worn this century.

"How," the Indian greeted her solemnly.

"Hello, to you too. I wonder," River smiled ingratiatingly. "I seem to be stuck in the middle of Utah, and I think I'm out of gas. Is there any chance of a ride?"

The Indian contemplated for a moment before asking, "Where are you going?"

River thought for a moment. Anywhere he could take her would be closer to civilisation than Lake Silencio, but where was she headed? What was her plan? True, she'd managed to not shoot the Doctor;, but there was no sign of him, and every sign that she'd damaged the very fabric of time. She needed a plan, a starting point from which to try to fix this world, and for River Song the best place to start was finding someone with the power to help her. This was twenty-first century America, and River knew where the power lay.

"Wherever you can take me, for starters," she told him. "Then to Washington D.C. Tell me, who's the president of America?"

* * *

Amy looked around in confusion. She was lying on the bed in her bedroom. Her childhood bedroom, with vibrant blue walls and fairy lights woven into the bed-head, not the one she now shared with Rory. Her husband Rory, the Last Centurian.

Why was she in her old bedroom?

She looked around, puzzled by the fact that all her possessions seemed to be here. Through the open wardrobe door she could see her clothes, and her books were on the shelves. The surface of her desk was strewn with old treasures, including a model of the TARDIS she had made as a child.

Amy remembered packing all these things shortly after her wedding and moving them: first to unit she'd shared with Rory, then later to the house the Doctor gave them. Why were they back in her room?

And why was she here? Her last recollection was of prowling the kitchen of their house, opening cupboards and the refrigerator, trying to decide what to cook for dinner. Rory was due home from work at the hospital in half an hour, and she'd promised to be the one to cook dinner this time.

Then she was here, lying on the bed, surrounded by her possessions.

Amy picked up her phone from beside the bed and rang Rory. Rather, she tried to ring Rory. His number wasn't in her phone for some reason, so she dialled it from memory. But instead of hearing Rory, the phone was answered by an lady with an Indian accent who swore that she'd had that number for years, and didn't know anyone called Rory.

She looked around the room, seeing photos from her childhood that should have shown Amy with her two best friends. But in all those photos she was on her own.

That's when Amy really started to panic. Something had happened to Rory!

* * *

President John F. Kennedy. Well known for his shocking death, his lovely wife, his support for civil rights and the space race, and of course his alleged affair with Marilyn Monroe. Of course, with time gone wrong it wasn't certain he was acting entirely in character, but the way he was staring at the curvaceous blonde strongly suggested that the affair with Marilyn was more than 'alleged'.

River looked in the mirror and carefully patted her hair into place. She couldn't get used to the colour -, it had never been this blonde before-, but you had to work with what you had, and JFK was known to have a thing for blondes. Blondes in very flattering dresses.

"You look lost," a deep voice spoke from behind her shoulder.

River turned and looked at the speaker, noticing his carefully groomed dark hair and easy smile. The one man at this party that she'd set her sights on for had come over to speak to her.

"Why, how can I be lost?" she asked breathily. "Since you found me so easily." Really, this type of flirting felt quite out of character to River, but history provided a detailed record of what this man found attractive, so for tonight at least she would play the fragile but plucky blonde. She only needed to keep him interested for long enough to expose him to her hallucinogenic lipstick, and then she could plant all sorts of wonderful suggestions about what he should do to help her.

River had a sudden flash-back. Three years ago she'd been sitting in the coffee room at the university taking a brief break from writing up her doctoral dissertation, and listening to two colleagues from the history department arguing about the man who was standing in front of her now. One argued that JFK's endocrine and autoimmune issues had kept him from being the greatest president America had ever known, and that his death was a tragedy. The other argued that Kennedy's health issues were actually the result of trying to pass as human when he was actually an alien trying to steer humanity's path towards the stars. It seemed like a life-time ago that she had lived surrounded by such academic debate. No doubt her former colleagues would be delighted if they'd had the opportunity to test those theories themselves. Personally River was hoping that the president was 100% human, because the effect of her lipstick on alien physiologies was unpredictable.

So River smiled, and flirted. Occasionally she came close to simpering. She laughed at witless comments from elderly statesmen, and danced with younger power-brokers. All through the party she kept glancing over at the president, smiling provocatively. As midnight approached she met his eye across the dance floor, winked suggestively and slowly made her way out onto the balcony.

President Kennedy followed her as soon as he was able, and attempted to seduce her in a dark corner. From the moment he pressed his lips to hers she had control, whispering in his ear to set up the support she needed: financial backing, access to the military and intelligence communities and introductions to Scotland Yard.

River had him wrapped around her little finger, and knew full well that all she'd have to do was call and he'd do whatever else she asked. You'd have thought the President of the United States might have more will power. Then again, he was only human.

* * *

"What is this?" Amy demanded. "Some kind of intervention or something?"

"Amy dear, of course it's not. Sit down," her mother begged. "We just want to talk to you."

"Really?" Amy flopped down onto the only empty armchair. "So you just happen to be sitting here having a cup of tea with Dr Bryce, right at the time you're expecting me home? And, by purest coincidence, Dad's not sitting on his favourite chair; you've left it free for me so you can all be facing me?"

"Amy, you know we're all here to help you," Dr Bryce said. "Your parents asked me to be here because they're concerned for you."

"Tell me more," Amy said quietly, with just a hint of steel in her voice.

"We love you Amy," her mother sounded sad. "But we're worried about you. I thought you were over this whole imaginary friend thing."

"We all thought that," her father said. "You were seeing Dr Bryce about that for years, and over the last five years you've been so much better. But then you came running down the stairs two weeks ago yelling about something having happened to Rory. There is no Rory, Amy. He's a figment of your imagination."

"Now Augustus," Dr Bryce reached out and touched Amy's father's arm. "Remember what we talked about. We're not accusing Amy of anything, we just want to talk about how her behaviour is making us feel. Use "I" statements. Amy, I feel concerned about this Rory situation."

"You're concerned?" Amy said angrily, thinking of the desperation with which she'd searched for Rory, the days hanging out at the hospital looking for him, because she remembered him as a nurse. But he wasn't there. "I'm the one whose husband has disappeared, and you're all acting like I've gone nuts. Why are you all pretending that you don't know him? You were all at the wedding, don't you remember?"

"Amy, there never was a wedding, you're making it all up!"

"Okay Amy," Dr Bryce spoke calmly. "I don't remember the wedding, but clearly you do. Could you tell us more about it?"

"We got married at the church in the village," Amy smiled fondly. "You were almost late Dad, because you kept re-writing your speech, rambling on about how the best man might be using the same joke book. I wore my hair loose, with flowers. Mum, you looked wonderful, you wore your big blue bead necklace, and a fascinator with feathers. The reception was amazing, there were balloons, and the table centerpieces were white twigs and red flower. Just before Dad's speech I remembered the Doctor. He'd planted all these clues, and when Rory started talking about that old wedding saying, it all came together in my mind: something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. He materialised in the middle of the dance floor. How can you not remember this?"

"The Doctor was there too?" her mother asked incredulously. "Your imaginary friend is back again; can't you see how wrong this is Amy?"

"Of course he was there, you danced with him, the lanky bloke in a tux, floppy hair. Come on Mum, you taught him to do the Macarena, it was brilliant. Tell me that you remember him."

Her mother looked at her father desperately, then turned to Dr Bryce. "Doctor, what's happened to her?"

"Amy," Dr Bryce used what Amy had once called his 'sincere voice'. "How long have you and Rory been married?"

"We married at noon on June 26th, 2010. You were all there, you have to remember," Amy looked at them desperately. "I thought maybe because you're my family, that you'd be able to remember."

"June?" her mother sounded confused now.

"Noon?" her father echoed.

"Amy, what's the date today?" Dr Bryce asked.

"It's April 22nd, 2011."

"And what was the date yesterday?"

"I know what you're trying to do," Amy said sullenly. "I know that yesterday's date was the same. But it shouldn't have been! Can't any of you remember? There's something wrong with time. The date should change every day, and time should flow instead of being frozen. Everything's changed, but you can't see it."

Her parents looked incredulous now, as if she'd suggested the world was flat. Dr Bryce just looked worried.

"Why would you be the only person who would remember this? What makes you so special?"

"I'm different," Amy tried to explain. "I grew up with a time crack in the wall of my bedroom." They were all looking at her; her parents faces blank, Dr Bryce's filled with pity. "I grew up with all of space and time flowing through my mind, and I can remember things that never happened. That's why I remember the Doctor, and why I remember my husband, Rory the Roman. It's not my fault none of you can remember, but I fixed the world before, brought you back when you'd been erased from time. I can fix this too." With that she jumped up and stalked from the room, slamming the door behind her.

The three people left in the room looked at each other, the silence dragging out as they all waited for someone else to speak first. In the end it was Dr Bryce who spoke the words they were all thinking.

"It's worse than I thought. Moving time, disappearing husbands, saving the world."

"I'd been thinking," Amy's mother suggested, "that maybe a bit of therapy could fix her."

"This is a full blown psychosis," Dr Bryce confirmed. "She's completely delusional, and who knows what she could do."

"What do we do then?" Augustus asked. "She's our little girl, and we love her. But we're so worried about her."

"I think she's going to need residential care," Dr Bryce suggested. "I know it sounds awful, but her grasp on reality is so tenuous that she'll need intensive therapy, counselling, and almost certainly some chemical assistance to be well again."

"You mean..." Amy's mother was scared to finish the sentence.

"I mean that I'm going to have to take Amy with me and put her in the mental hospital, whether she's willing to go or not."

* * *

"How are things at the FBI?" the clerk asked.

"Not quite what I expected," River replied. "That J. Edgar is a real piece of work. And his views on women in the workplace are positively archaic."

"Archaic," the clerk repeated. "Never heard that word before. What's it mean? Some kind of American slang, I suppose."

River sighed. With time gone wrong, of course the language would have changed. Things could never be 'old fashioned', or 'mediaeval', when time wasn't passing. "Something like that. Anyway, how are you going with that search I requested?"

"Some good, some bad," the clerk explained. He started tapping at the shiny new computer which sat on an antique desk within the buildings of Scotland Yard. He was wearing what River thought of as Elizabethan costume:, knee-high boots, scarlet hose, and a royal blue doublet emblazoned with the Union Jack. "I found Amelia Pond. She's in a village called Leadworth. Lived with her parents and an aunt until about 6 months."

"And now?" River asked.

"Six months ago she was involuntarily admitted to the psych wing of the Leadworth hospital, suffering delusions. Doctor of record is one Dr Roland Bryce. Indications are that she's not responding to treatment. Why are you looking for a crazy woman?"

"Sorry, that's classified," River said, trying not to show her shock at this news. Amy, in the psych ward? This wasn't at all good. "How about the other name I gave you."

"Rory Williams., I've been looking for him too." He continued tapping at the keyboard. "I have records of several people by that name, but none of them seem to match the description you gave."

"Do any of them live anywhere near Leadworth?"

"Not even remotely. Are you sure about the name? I can show you ID photos of all the Rorys I've found, see." He brought the images up on screen, but none of them looked anything like her father.

"I don't understand," River mused. "Rory has to be here somewhere."

"Have you tried talking to Torchwood? They're renowned for explaining the inexplicable."

"Torchwood?" River remembered reading about the secret agency, and some of the things they had done. She didn't know whether calling them now was a good idea,. They might still be the militaristic organisation that had shot first and asked questions later. "I'll keep them in reserve;, but maybe you've got a number for them."

The clerk called up Torchwood on his computer, and River was shocked to see the photo that came up on screen along with the number. Time Agent Jack Harkness, the man she'd left hallucinating in a bathroom in the 41st century was the head of Torchwood in the 21st century. Now that she recognised him, River was able to recall seeing his name in old Terran files detailing the history of the Torchwood Institute. She'd read them years ago, looking for references to the days of her childhood, and for stories of the Doctor. Captain Jack Harkness of Torchwood, there had been obscure references to his intriguing origins, and even to his lantern jaw and beguiling charm, but River was stunned to know she'd met this historical figure in the future. Shock aside, the presence of Jack Harkness at the Torchwood Institute crystallised her decision not to contact the Institute. Her task here was nearly impossible, even without being pursued by a former time agent.

* * *

Amy Pond drew feverishly in her sketch book. They all thought she was crazy, of course. Not for the aliens, the historical events she'd experienced, the claims of a baby born in outer space and stolen from her, nor even for her compulsion to draw the faces from the events she remembered. No, what doomed her to being sectioned and , locked away in the loony bin, was her conviction that these events had happened at other times.

Everyone knew that it was two minutes past five on the twenty second of April, 2011. To even suggest that she had been married on another date was crazy, especially when she couldn't find her husband. Rory the Roman, the boy who waited nearly two thousand years for her. He was out there somewhere, and he probably couldn't even remember her.

He was out there, and she was stuck in a mental hospital where doctors repeatedly told her that time didn't move and clocks didn't tick. Time was broken, and the Doctor wasn't here to help.

Amy knew why of course, or at least she thought she knew. Lake Silencio, and the spaceman. The spaceman who killed the Doctor. She remembered the heartache, the tears she shed over his body. The heat from the funeral pyre as they pushed the boat into the lake was as fresh as if it had just happened, and the shock and joy she'd felt when he walked into that diner, oblivious to the paradox he created, seemed like just yesterday. But she also remembered the spaceman _not_ killing the doctor. This memory was less sharp, and there was no detail of what happened after. It was like one moment they were picnicking by the lake, and the next moment she was back in Leadworth on her own, with time frozen at 5:02 in the afternoon.

She felt so isolated with Rory gone, Mels having disappeared, and no sign of the Doctor. Where were these important people from her life? Why had the disruption to time taken them away from her?.

So she drew them all instead. Her book was filled with Rory's aquiline nose and short hair, his gentle eyes. The Doctor's shaggy hair, sharp cheek bones and silly bow tie. Mels' cheeky smile and braided hair. But there were other creatures in her book. Daleks, and Sontarans; Silurians, Cybermen, Romans, pirates and angels. The TARDIS, inside and out. There was a baby, a cradle, and two women. One woman had a wealth of curly hair; the other wore an eye-patch and a bitter sneer.

"Put down the book, Miss Pond." A nurse had come up behind her while she was drawing. "You need to come with me. The doctor needs to see you."

Amy's heart jumped momentarily when the nurse said "the doctor", but she knew this was just the regular normal doctor, the psychiatrist who did regular rounds, prescribing medications and trying to convince her that time had always been as it was now. Clever logical arguments had not served her; he didn't care that if the time and date had never changed there was no reason for humanity to have named them, they would simply be. This doctor was prepared to give her all the time in the world to say that time hadn't changed. Maybe sometime soon she would go along with his reality, just to escape this place.

In the meantime Amy followed the nurse down the corridor, clutching her sketchbook and pencils tight to her chest. She usually tried to hide her pictures from the doctors; they were bound to argue with her that none of the things inside were real.

When they got to the office the nurse smiled at Amy. "You just knock, and then go on in. The doctor has a visitor with him, some kind of big wig who's an expert on problems like yours. They just want to talk to you, nothing to worry about."

Amy knocked and waited a moment before opening the office door. She was expecting another elderly doctor, come to visit and discuss the merits of her case with the resident doctors. When she stepped into the room she was surprised to see a familiar face. The wild curls were restrained in a neat bun, but the smile was unmistakably that of the woman in her drawings.

"Hello Amy Pond," the woman stood and extended her hand. "I'm Dr Song, and I'm hoping you'll agree to talk with me for a while."

Amy shook hands, trying to hide her shock. "Pleased to meet you Dr Song,. I'd be happy to talk with you."

"Thank you," the woman smiled, and then turned to the head of the hospital. "If you don't mind, Alfred, I think it would be best if we spoke privately for a while. May we use your office?"

"Of course Dr Song," he simpered. "I'll be just down the hall when you need me." He stood and walked out the door and pulled it shut behind him.

"Amy," Dr Song asked hesitantly. "Do you remember who I am?"

Instead of answering Amy threw her arms around her. "Of course I know who you are! River Song, Melody Pond." There were tears running down both women's cheeks. "Thank God you came. I was beginning to think I was imagining it all,: Rory and the Doctor and the TARDIS and you;, but if you're here then it's all really true."

"Oh Amy," River murmured, "I am so glad you remember, because I desperately need your help."

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm locked up in a loony bin," Amy protested.

"That's okay. I convinced your gaolers that I'm an expert on psychotemporal disorders. There's no such thing, I made it all up, but he swallowed it hook line and sinker. If you agree, he's going to release you into my care."

"Released into your responsible care. Just imagine if they knew you were part of my 'delusion', Amy grinned. "I mean really, there's a whole truckload of irony in this, daughter of mine."

"Well, that's a relief," River smiled widely. "I wasn't sure if you knew yet. I mean, you didn't find out until nearly a year after today's date."

"I remember all sorts of things from after this moment. How does that work exactly?"

"I wish I could answer that," River said. "But I just don't know. I guess that's something we'll have to put on our things-to-work-out list."

"And then what?" Amy asked.

"Then we need to find a way to fix time and save the Doctor."

"Alright," Amy agreed. "Let's go."

* * *

**Please review, knowing people are reading is what inspires me to keep it going. :)**


	8. Chapter 6: Interlude part II

_A quick apology to anyone who was reading, then there's been this long break between chapters. Life happened, as life sometimes does, and this kinda fell by the wayside. I'm going to post a few chapters over the next couple of days, and hopefully get things back on track. Thanks for coming back to read..._

* * *

"Why can't we stay in England?" Amy asked.

River sighed. "I can't stay in England Amy. I need to get as far away from London as I can."

"Why?"

"Because I can feel his presence. The Doctor is here, in England. It was strongest when I was in London, but I can still feel it here. And if I can feel him, you bet your bottom dollar that he can feel me too."

"And how is that a bad thing?" Amy asked. "If you can feel him that means we can find him, he can help us."

"That would be the worst possible thing." River said, suddenly realising that she had so much to explain to her mother. "Time is damaged because of what happened at Lake Silencio. I know you were there, I saw you. I was trapped inside that suit. The Silence literally forced me to kill the Doctor. But then I managed to go back and change it. We need to find a way to fix time, but if I know the Doctor he'll try to fix it the easy way, by sacrificing himself."

"What?"

"The Doctor and I are the centres of this disruption. He didn't die, and I didn't kill him. It's like..." River struggled for a metaphor to explain multi-dimensional physics to someone who'd dropped science after their O levels. "Okay, on a hot summer night when you know there's a storm coming, there's a moment before the storm starts when it feels like the whole world is just waiting for that first lightning strike. You can feel the electricity in the air just waiting for somewhere to go."

"Right," Amy was clearly struggling with the concept.

"Lightning happens when a big charge differential bridges the gap between the earth and the heavens. So imagine the Doctor is the sky, I'm the earth, and the time disruption is all that static electricity which is floating in the air making your hair stand on end. The slightest contact between the Doctor and I and... kaboom."

"Lightning," Amy said slowly.

"Lightning indeed," River agreed. "The disturbance in time will be healed, and I'll be back on that beach killing the Doctor. I don't think that's the outcome either of us want."

"Definitely not," Amy considered. "Is there another way? There has to be."

"I think there is, but that's why we need to go."

"Tell me again why it has to be the Pyramids?" Amy asked.

"We're going to need to contain as many of the Silence as possible, and we know they use electricity as a weapon," River explained. "We need somewhere big, not wired for electricity, and no metal at all in the construction. Really dry air would be helpful too, dry air conducts less electricity than humid air. We also need a government that we can persuade to help us. Egypt is functioning as a monarchy, with Cleopatra at the head. I think we can work with that."

"Okay," Amy agreed. "I always wanted to see the pyramids. I just thought I'd go in the TARDIS, or that Rory and I would go together. I never thought you and I would be flying there in a Zeppelin."

The soldier focused on cleaning his gun. It was important to keep his equipment in top condition, you never knew when you might need it.

He wasn't quite sure why he'd become a soldier. At school he'd planned to become a doctor; he'd struggled long and hard but failed to get high enough marks to study medicine, and when offered the chance to join up, somehow the army had called to him. He'd had no close childhood friends, no reason to stay in the village where he'd grown up. In clear contrast to his academic studies, every part of army life came easily to him, as if he were remembering lessons instead of learning them.

"Williams!"

He stood quickly and saluted the officer. "Sir!"

"Report to the Colonel's office, immediately."

"Sir, yes sir!" The soldier returned his gun to the weapons locker, checked that has breastplate was immaculate and his sandals correctly tied, then walked quickly through the barracks and across the yard to the commandants office where he knocked sharply and waited for a response before opening the door. He stepped inside, closed the door behind him and saluted the man behind the desk.

"At ease Private Williams," the Colonel said. "I'd like you to meet Brigadier General Franklin of the US army."

The soldier turned to the unfamiliar man in a US army uniform. He extended his hand. "Pleased to meet you sir." The US uniform was as different from the English as night and day; sharply pressed khakis and brightly coloured badges compared to a traditional Roman military uniform.

"And you Private Williams," Commander Franklin said, shaking the offered hand. "You've been recommended for a secondment to a joint task force between the British and American armies. You will report to the US embassy at 0700 tomorrow for your new assignment."

"Yes sir," the soldier said. The American turned and walked from the room leaving the soldier and the Colonel behind.

"Any questions Williams?" the Colonel asked.

"Do you know what the new assignment involves?"

"It's a special task force, a joint operation. All I know is that you were requested by name, and that it's classified at the highest levels. Make us proud soldier. Now, go pack your bag, you've got a long way to travel."

"Put down that gun!" Cleopatra said with a giggle.

"I will," River smiled while using her free hand to spin the giddy queen around. "But not until you give me what I want."

"Hmm," Cleopatra simpered. "How about I give you what **_I_** want and see if you change your mind?"

River laughed: this really wasn't going at all how she'd planned it. It appeared that Cleopatra had decided the game was seduction, and the Egyptian wasn't going to take no for an answer.

It had all started with a friendly chat at a political function which River had talked her way into based on her fake FBI credentials. She'd bonded with the queen while chatting about hair styles, and the difficulty of maintaining a respectable hair-do when the wet-season rains made the air thick with humidity. Cleopatra, who insisted that her new friend call her Cleo, had invited River to join her in having her hair done. River had spent an afternoon having her hair washed, oiled, braided and styled while she sipped champagne with the Egyptian queen and talked about everything from football and politics to tactics, boys and clothes.

River hadn't been intending to manipulate Cleopatra. Her plan involved befriending the woman, and gaining her informed support for the project. Everything she knew about the woman suggested that she would be open to the cooperative venture, and that she was intelligent enough to understand the benefits of fixing reality.

Instead Cleopatra had invited River to walk with her through the palace gardens, and now that they were in a secluded grotto the Egyptian queen seemed quite intent on seduction. River leant back, away from the scarlet painted lips which were approaching hers. She was wearing the hallucinogenic lipstick, a last resort in case Cleo couldn't be brought to see the advantages of cooperating, but really didn't want to use it. So River had pulled out her gun, and Cleo responded as if this were some kind of role play fantasy. Right up until the moment River pressed the barrel against the Egyptian monarch's side and released the safety. Cleopatra froze.

"Put down that gun," Cleo whispered tensely. "You don't really want to do this."

"I really don't," River replied. "I really wanted to talk to you, tell you what's really gone wrong with the world, give you the chance to help out willingly."

"Okay," Cleo tried to smile. "Put down the gun, we can talk."

"That's what I've been trying to do," River explained. "You're the one who had other things on her mind. Not that I'm not flattered, really I am. There was a time, when I was at university, that I would definitely have been pursuing this with you. But things change, and I'm in the middle of trying to save the universe right now, so I'm a little distracted."

She returned the gun to its holster, and Cleo sank down onto a stone bench.

"You're saving the universe?" Cleo asked.

"It's kind of a long story, and it involves traveling through time and space," River sat down on the next bench and looked at the cotton draped queen. "An evil religious order tried to force me to kill someone; an amazing man who never hurt them. I tried to save the Doctor, and now everything has gone wrong."

"The Doctor?" Cleo straightened suddenly. "Does he have a blue box called the TARDIS that can vanish?"

"You've met the Doctor?" River asked eagerly. "I never knew that. Tell me what happened?"

"Later," Cleo promised. "First tell me what you meant about the universe going wrong. Why are you here?"

"Well," River began. "To start with, Egypt is supposed to be the strongest Empire of it's time. Right now all times are happening at once; every country seems to be at the height of its power. I'm trying to save the Doctor, and return time to its proper course. And I need your help."

Cleopatra looked at River, looking into her eyes, gauging her sincerity. "Okay."

"Okay?" River asked quizzically.

Cleo smiled. "Okay. What can I do to help?"

Private Williams took a quick look around the corner then drew back. Finally the target was in sight. Nearly six months of searching had led him to Vatican City, to this corridor outside an office deep in the heart of the Basilica.

A middle aged woman with brown curly hair pulled into a tight bun sat behind a desk with a pile of papers in front of her, quill in hand as she made detailed notes. The woman put the quill down and stopped to rub her forehead, then started writing again.

"Target acquired," Private Williams briefed his unit over the comms. "Team alpha, I want you to guard the rear exit. Bravo, I need you backing me when I go in. The target appears to have limited visibility on her left, on of you cover her from that side. "

"Roger sir," his unit responded.

"On my count then," Williams ordered. "Three, two, one, go…"

"I found Rory," River smiled in anticipation of Amy's response.

"I can't get the eye-stalk right," Amy muttered, looking up from her sketchpad. "Wait, what did you say?"

"Rory, he was in the British Army," River smiled. "They're transferring him to us as part of our team."

"New soldier?" Amy drawled. "Great, we really need another uniformed muscle man. I hope this one's at least cute. There's a distressing lack of eye candy in this place."

River was confused by Amy's lack of reaction. "This one's not exactly eye candy, but I think you'll like him. It's Rory. Well, he's going by Captain Williams now."

"Why am I going to like this Captain Williams?" Amy asked vaguely. "It's not like I'm boyfriend shopping, I'm a married woman. But still, a bit of eye candy wouldn't go astray, don't you think?"

"Of course not," River said vaguely, but her mind was working overtime. Why wasn't Amy reacting to this news? She'd been searching for Rory ever since this endless moment began, and now it was as if she didn't even hear the news. Perhaps she'd respond when she finally met him, until then it was best to let things be.

"Right, new eye candy. So," Amy smiled. "We've been at this for months, finally got the last of the tanks fitted. Captured that Kovarian bitch and nearly got those pesky eye-drive things sorted. I think we need some down time, so... I got us a bottle of Baileys, and some ice-cream."

"Ice cream? What flavour?" River asked, sitting down on the other bed in the room she shared with Amy.

"I got two tubs, chocolate and strawberry," Amy grinned. "I'm hoping your taste in ice-cream flavours hasn't changed in... how long has it been for you?"

"God, ice-cream," River sighed heartily. "There's some wonderful things about the 51st century, but somewhere along the way they've lost the recipe for ice-cream. I haven't had ice-cream for nearly five years."

"Five years," Amy exclaimed. "That's dire! Open the fridge, I hid the ice-cream in the bag marked sprouts. Figured there was no way you'd be poking around in that."

River opened the fridge, rustled around in the freezer compartment, pulled out two small tubs of ice-cream and a glass bottle from the fridge. "I hope you've got spoons," River said. "Otherwise I'm just going to let this melt and drink the ice-cream."

"Of course I'm prepared," Amy chuckled and held up two spoons, then gestured to two glasses sitting on the bedside table. "Really, after all those midnight feasts we had as kids, did you think I'd make you eat with your fingers?"

"I'd forgotten," River admitted, leaning back on her bed and contemplating the ice-cream tubs. "The chocolate better be for me, because there's no way I'm giving it to you."

"Of course it is," Amy tossed the spoon to River who snatched it out of the air then threw the strawberry tub back to the red-head. "You forgot? I mean, it hasn't been five years for me yet, but how could you forget?"

"Oh Amy," River lifted a spoonful of chocolate ice-cream to her mouth and sighed as the flavour exploded in her mouth. "It hasn't been five years since Leadworth." Amy looked up sharply from her ice-cream. "I managed an authorised trip back to Earth in 2020 as part of a student trip five years ago. It was all about the dangers of over-interpreting history based on archaeological finds. But I managed to ditch the students for a few minutes and buy myself some ice-cream. It made me so home-sick."

"How long?" Amy asked sharply. "How long has it been for you?"

"I spent a month in the hospital," River explained. "I was pretty weak after Berlin. That's when I discovered that the TARDIS had set me up with identity papers, bank accounts and everything, all in the name River Song. According to the records I graduated high-school on one of the outlying colonies then moved to New Earth to go to University. I found an apartment, and went to university and studied history. Mostly I just wanted to find out the truth of what the Silence had told me about the Doctor, and if you look carefully he's studded throughout the history books."

"So you went to uni," Amy said impatiently. "I guessed that from the Dr Song thing, but how long has it been?"

"Four years as an undergraduate, I majored in history," River explained. "Then two years of a master's degree, a year working on a dig as a research assistant. Then four years doing my PhD."

"That's eleven years! Eleven years since we were in Leadworth," Amy looked sad. "The Doctor said you'd find us. I never thought it would take so long."

"Nearly fourteen actually," River admitted. "Kovarian took me again on my graduation day, which was eleven and a half years after Leadworth. That's when they put me in the lake. When she dumped me back at the university I ran, avoided capture for just over a year, I spent most of that hiding on an archaeology dig. Then a Time Agent found me, and I stole his vortex manipulator. That's a kind of device time agents use, they strap them to their wrists..."

"I know what a vortex manipulator is," Amy interrupted.

"Really? How?" River asked.

"Uh... spoilers," Amy answered.

"God I hate that word," River said, her frustration evident. "Anyway, it took me another few months to get everything ready to try to save the Doctor. Which brought us here, to this broken moment. I think we've been here for nearly a year, haven't we?"

Amy thought about it. "Yeah, I guess it must be about that. There was the time at my parent's house, then the months in the hospital. And we've been here for months now, building our resources, catching the Silence, analysing time."

River scooped up more ice-cream, eating it before speaking. "I did look for you, you and Rory and the Doctor. That's why I studied history. At first I was just looking for the Doctor, but then I was reading accounts of the Starship UK, and I realised that his un-named companion was you. You never told Mels about that, or anything after the Atraxi invasion. I only knew he was back when I heard the stories about your reception. When did he come back for you?"

"The night before our wedding," Amy smiled, remembering running away from home in her nightie. "The Starship UK was our first stop. That poor star-whale, how did it turn out? That's one thing about travelling with the Doctor. You're there for the highlights, but you never get to know how things turned out. Did the ship make it? All those people? And what about Scotland, insisting on having their own ship. So typical!"

River laughed. "It turned out fine, they made it to safety and the star-whale swam free. Liz Ten is still queen of England in my time, though she's pretty reclusive by then. She called the star-whale a friend of the Empire, even knighted it. First non-humanoid to ever be a knight of the empire. Speaking of knights, did you know that Queen Victoria knighted the Doctor and banished him from the realm, all in one night."

"Really? So he's Sir Doctor?"

"Sir Doctor of Gallifrey, to use his full title," River corrected gently. "It's so typical of him, isn't it? His companion at the time was knighted too, a girl called Rose. That was one of his earlier incarnations: ten I think, though it could have been nine."

"How many incarnations has he had? I knew right from the start that he could change, the night I met him was his first day in the current body, but I can't imagine him with a different face."

"Different faces, different bodies, even differences in personalities," River explained. "I found pictures of some of them, and they are so different. Even the ages, he's been old before, I think this might be about the youngest he's looked. I have all the pictures, but they're in my flat at the university. Maybe one day I'll be able to show you."

"So you pretty much studied him? Researched all about him? Is that what you did for you PhD?" Amy giggled suddenly. "Are you a doctor of the Doctor?"

River laughed outright. "No, I did my thesis on something far funnier than that."

"Oh," Amy raised one eyebrow. "What could possibly be funnier than a thesis on the Doctor?"

"Village life in the late 20th century: a comparison between communities and artefact types from the United Kingdom and South Africa." River recited her thesis title.

"What's so funny about... no, you didn't?" Amy asked.

"I did a dig at the site of Leadworth, deserted for over a thousand years when the Earth was abandoned."

"You studied Leadworth?" Amy was incredulous.

"Apparently I had some very amazing insights into life of that era," River laughed. "That wasn't the original plan of course, I was going to work on an alien culture, maybe the Applans, or perhaps some other culture, but my supervisor insisted that I should play to my strengths. I could hardly admit why I had such insight, and actually sometimes it was much harder, because I had to find sources to confirm things I already knew."

Amy sat up and poured them both drinks before relaxing against the pillows.

"When we found out who you were that was one of the things that surprised me," Amy admitted. "That you were a Dr, and that one day... I mean, as Melody you weren't exactly a bookworm, or a nerd. I can't imagine the girl you were as a teenager even going to Uni, let alone doing what you did."

"So you knew I was a doctor, and an archaeologist?" River asked. "How much do you know about me?"

"The Doctor said it's too dangerous for you to know things in advance," Amy said cautiously.

"I suppose he's right, but I am getting so sick of him and you saying 'spoilers'," River complained.

"If it's any comfort, in your future you'll get your revenge," Amy said supportively. "I think the Doctor hates that word as much as you do, and he's never really gotten to gloat about saying it the way you did."

"I did? Do?" River had a little smile at the thought. "I guess I can cope, so long as it's not all one-sided."

"As if you'd let it be one-sided," Amy grinned. "I think you enjoy it. And, River, even though there's lots of things I can't tell you, I can say that I think you'll be proud of who you become."

"Really?" River smiled at the thought. "So is my mother proud of me?"

"Well, you're hardly what I expected my daughter to turn into," Amy admitted. "Or even what I'd have expected Mels to grow into. How does that work, anyway? I mean, you hated school."

"That wasn't my first time going through school," River said. "Imagine what you would have thought of school if you were going through it for the third time. The only reason I even went was because I wanted to get to know you, otherwise I would have been a regular truant."

"Your third time? River, how old are you?"

"Um, I'd have to work it out," River said thoughtfully. "You've been to America in 1969, right?"

"Space, 1969? Yes, that was over a year ago. I know you were at the orphanage, did you see us there?"

"I saw you at the warehouse, and a few months later at the orphanage," River admitted. "I ran away that time. I think the Silence took you, but I'm a bit vague on the details. I hate the way those things mess with your head. Anyway, I was about nine years old when I ran away from the orphanage. I ran away, ended up in New York. I got sick, couldn't find a way to survive the winter. I regenerated in December in an alley, became Mels, a ten year old toddler."

"You regenerated when you were ten?" Amy asked. "But that means you died? My baby died in an alley when she was still a little girl?"

"I used to look more like you," River said. "I saw you looking at those photos in the orphanage, do you remember that? The Silence grabbed you just after, that's when I ran from them, because I stopped thinking you'd be able to save me."

"You thought I'd save you?" Amy asked.

"I guess it's every orphan's dream, her parents riding up in a shining carriage to rescue her from the horrid orphanange. I knew wasn't really an orphan, but I spent seven years in the orphanage with other children, then two years there with only Dr Renfrew and the Silence after Greystark Hall closed. Of course I dreamt of being saved, the same way you dreamt of the Doctor arriving in his magic blue box and taking you away from Leadworth."

"Oh." Amy thought about this for a while, imagining her daughter as a child, then remembering the question River had asked. "I am you know."

"You are what?" River asked.

"Proud of you," Amy explained. "I could never have imagined the women you'd grow into, but I'm pretty sure my mother would say the same thing about you. And I wouldn't even have my mother without the Doctor and you."

"That's right," River said. "It's like I have two sets of memories from Leadworth, memories of your parents, and other memories where your aunt brought you up. I always assumed that was something the Silence did to me."

"Er," Amy hesitated. "Not the Silence. More like the universe, and the Doctor. It's kind of a long story, and it definitely comes under the spoiler heading."

"Spoilers again?" River rolled her eyes. "So sick of those. You knmow what that calls for, don't you?"

Amy grinned. "Another drink, and lots more ice-cream?"

"Exactly!" River grinned back at her mother and best friend.


End file.
